Tag: online financial challenge

Having emergency savings means you won’t have to use credit or borrow money from friends or relatives if something unexpected happens. Savings makes you less financially vulnerable. For this reason, saving money makes sense even if you are also repaying high-interest credit card debt. Try to do both if you can.

An emergency savings or rainy day fund is an amount of money, usually in a savings account you don’t have easy access to, that is set aside for those “what ifs.” For example,

What if the electricity goes out and all the food in my freezer goes bad?

What if a pipe bursts and my house is flooded?

What if a tree falls on my roof?

Celebrate America Saves Week, an annual savings promotion campaign, by making a commitment to save, maintaining your current level of savings, or increasing the amount you set aside for future financial goals. Every dollar saved makes a difference!

As we celebrate America Saves Week, it is important to recognize benefits from savings that extend beyond one’s finances. Research indicates that having money in savings can reduce stress and improve relationships with family members. Savings also builds resilience when unexpected events happen. More savings info: http://bit.ly/ASaves

Creating a household inventory can be a daunting task. In addition to the rooms of our homes where we spend the most time — kitchen, dining room, family room, living room, and bedrooms — many of us have attics, basements, and garages filled with family treasures, household files, and tools.

Flood by Patrick Morrison from The Noun Project

In addition to being a record of all possessions accumulated over the years, a household inventory is critical to getting insurance claims settled quickly after a disaster. It can also be used to verify losses for income tax returns.

Fire by Abigail Cramer from The Noun Project

A complete and up to date household inventory is the basis for buying the appropriate amount of insurance coverage. The relationship between updating your household inventory and maintaining appropriate insurance coverage means that regularly reviewing your insurance coverage goes hand-in-hand with updating your household inventory.

Some important things to know about your policy:

Is your home and its contents insured for at least 80 percent of its replacement cost, rather than depreciated value? If not, insurance will not cover the full cost of rebuilding after an insured loss.

What disasters are covered? While the exact coverage will vary from policy to policy, a standard policy covers fire, lightning, windstorms, hail, freezing of plumbing or pipes, damage from weight of ice, and volcanic eruptions (with exceptions).

What disasters are not covered? Your policy will also spell out the disasters you are not insured against. Depending on your geography, as well as your insurance carrier, common exclusions are earth movement, flooding, and sewer back-up.

Welcome to the 2014 Prepare Kansas challenge. The program focuses on a few activities every week during September. For example: Developing a Household Inventory; Reviewing Your Insurance Coverage; Putting Together a Grab-and-Go Box; and Tips for After the Disaster.

Challenge activities for September 1 – 7 are to:

review the meaning of Watch and Warning, as related to weather situations, and

decide on the format for your household inventory and inventory 2 rooms in your home.

Throughout the week we will post helpful information about how to accomplish each of the challenge tasks.

Haven’t signed up for Prepare Kansas yet? There is still time! Take steps ahead of disaster and register by September 6 at http://bit.ly/1pwiiFE

Helpful links

Food Safey – Disasters and Power Outages
Salvaging and handling food after power outages, floods and other disasters may raise questions and present challenges. Refer to these resources to help recover food from a disaster.